BALLSTON SPA -- Monday at the Saratoga County-run Maplewood Manor nursing home, about 60 residents gathered in the main dining room to celebrate the birthday of one special tenant. Surrounded by family from as near as Corinth and as far away as Mississippi, Martha Wait celebrated her 108th birthday with cake, ice cream, music and "hot sex."

The latter is the name of a bottled vodka-based cocktail made with ginger liqueur, cream, chocolate and ginseng that Wait says is one of the secrets to her longevity.

"I'll tell you all my business if I do a shot of that," she said, noting that she felt good, but was a little tired from the excitement of the day. In the 1960s, Wait lived for a time in Saratoga Springs and Schenectady, making her a lifelong area resident.

Advertisement

Maplewood resident Marie Parkhurst worked at a women's boutique on Broadway in Saratoga Springs while Wait lived in an apartment above.

"There isn't a nicer person, I'll tell you," Parkhurst said of Wait.

In 1998, Wait moved into Saratoga Springs' Stonequist Apartments, where she lived until she was 104.

Wait's great niece, Teresa Fiore, works at Maplewood Manor.

"She's a doll," Fiore said, adding that Wait was very involved with the community in her youth.

Her longevity may be genetic: Fiore's grandmother -- Wait's sister -- passed away last year at the age of 101.

At Monday's party, Wait sat between daughter-in-law Barbara Remington and her grandson, 60-year-old Jerry Kroll, who said she must have a prescription for the two wrapped bottles of "hot sex" on the table in front of her.

A Connecticut resident, Kroll comes to see his grandmother as often as he can. He was born in Saratoga but grew up in Florida, where Wait would drive a green Dodge Dart to visit his family, well into her 70s.

"She would visit us and then spend the rest of the summer in Miami," Kroll said.

"Just give me the money and I'll travel anytime," Wait said, reminiscing about a cruise to South America she took decades ago with four girlfriends.